Would the US still have won the Cold War if Jimmy Carter were elected to a second term?

Cold War with Carter 2nd term?

  • USSR still collapses

    Votes: 26 81.3%
  • USSR remains but in a weaker position

    Votes: 4 12.5%
  • USSR remains a second superpower

    Votes: 2 6.3%

  • Total voters
    32
Say Carter is elected again in 1980, and serves his term out until 1985. Does the Soviet Union still collapse eventually without Reagan accelerating the process?
 

Japhy

Banned
The military buildup which most Reaganites site as the economic doom of the USSR started under Carter.

The gap between production and management and production and quality that was gutting the Soviet Economy was already entrenched by 1980 so that even maintaining standards, much less a major national push for a military build up was beyond the means of the USSR.

The situation in Poland was already heading where it was and the US was already supporting the insurgency in Afghanistan.

Short of a drastically different, dynamic and bloody leadership coming in in 1985, or the crash of the Soviets being a bit different things were on a terminal decline. Details and time frames can change but Carter wasn't the roll over President he's made out to be. You'd need George McGovern or some such to offer the Soviets a chance at grabbing a lifeline and recovering in any manner comparable to their heights. And Carter for what glad he did have wasn't that.
 
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